从国际条约的执行看加拿大联邦宪法问题

“条约必须信守”原则要求,承担了执行生效条约义务的国家必须在国内有效地履行所缔结的国际条约。但是,加拿大联邦政府在执行所缔结条约时存在一定困难。通过分析比较发现,加拿大履行条约的最大障碍存在于加拿大联邦制度。因为加拿大联邦制度无法有效解决联邦与地方的权力争端。     

Strange bedfellows: Federal systems and performance management

This paper offers the first link between models of the measurement and management of performance and the dimensions of governance arrangements in federal systems. Four ideal type approaches to governance in federal systems are correlated against four ideal types of measuring and managing performance. The paper develops a model that will support empirical research examining reform trajectories where evolving systems of federalism require evolving systems to manage performance in joint arrangements between levels of government.     

Centralizing treasury management in China: The rationale of the central reformers

The Chinese central government, spearheaded by the Ministry of Finance, launched a bold reform of the treasury management system in 2001, centralizing the disbursement of budgetary funds. This article analyzes the rationale of institutional reform from the perspective of the central reformers. Traditionally, governmental bank accounts in China were fragmented between and within levels of government, hindering budget implementation and intergovernmental transfers, as well as fomenting corruption. The centerpiece of China's treasury reform is the establishment of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), which serves to both strengthen expenditure controls and improve cash management. However, while the treasury reform promises to make significant strides in improving fiscal control and countering the misuse of public funds, its implementation remains imperfect and incomplete. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

苏联联邦制的问题与缺陷

1922年12月30日俄罗斯苏维埃联邦社会主义共和国与乌克兰苏维埃社会主义共和国、白俄罗斯苏维埃社会主义共和国、外高加索苏维埃社会主义联邦共和国组成苏联。苏联的成立虽保证了这几个独立共和国在苏联的平等地位，赢得几个独立共和国的信任，但也存在一系列的问题和缺陷。正是这些问题和缺陷始终没有得到很好的解决，为苏联的解体埋下了隐患，成了苏联解体的重要因素。     

俄罗斯大部制改革及其评析

俄罗斯从2003年至2008年进行了一场以联邦权力执行机构大部制和行政三分制改革为核心内容的行政改革运动,这是俄罗斯自上世纪九十年代初转轨以来在政治和行政管理领域最重要的事件之一。本文运用中外最新的资料和数据全面、细致地描述了俄罗斯俄罗斯大部制改革的过程和制度安排,深入分析了改革的效果及其背后的原因,并结合我国的实际情况提出了推进大部制改革需要注意的几个问题。     

Chapter 5

Abstract

The present study used archival data to examine the differential growth among self-governed substance abuse recovery homes for men (N = 443) and women (N = 125). The number of these homes increased dramatically across the U.S. from 1988-1999 when state loan funds were made available to states and technical assistance was utilized by organizations developing the houses. State loan programs and the utilization of technical assistance, however, had the strongest impact on the expansion of women's houses compared to men's houses. The implications of these findings in relation to the scarcity of recovery options for women are discussed.     

The Federal Impact on Early Postwar Suburbanization

ABSTRACT

Researchers agree that, in Canada and the United States, federal policy with respect to mortgage finance encouraged suburbanization in the early postwar period. However, direct evidence has been lacking. Unique mortgage file data for 1951 for two Canadian cities, Hamilton, Ontario, and Vancouver, British Columbia, make it possible to assess this claim, and related claims. They show that the impact of federal mortgage assistance was similar in direction in both cities, but much more striking in Hamilton: federal involvement encouraged suburbanization, reinforced existing broad patterns in the social geography of the city, and increased the amount of income segregation at the scale of specific neighborhoods and suburban subdivisions. The broad generalizations that previous researchers have made about the impact of federal mortgage policy are confirmed, but the magnitude of that impact could vary enormously and cannot be assumed in particular cases.     

Prosecutorial Discretion: An Examination of Substantial Assistance Departures in Federal Crack‐Cocaine and Powder‐Cocaine Cases

Recently there has been a call for research that explores decision‐making at stages prior to sentencing in the criminal justice process. Particularly research is needed under a determinate sentencing system where judicial dispositions are usually restricted by guidelines, which increases the importance of earlier decision‐making stages. As an answer to this call, and in an attempt to build on currents studies on the effects of departures as an intervening mechanism, and a source of unwarranted disparity, this study explores federal sentencing data on offenders convicted of crack‐cocaine and powder‐cocaine offenses. Although decision‐making of all criminal justice actors generally, and prosecutors specifically, has been the subject of much research, studies have yet to resolve the nature and outcome of their “autonomous” discretion. This autonomy becomes especially salient regarding prosecutorial decisions for substantial assistance departures. In deciding who receives a substantial assistance departure, the prosecutor has carte blanche power.     

Defending the Homeland: Judicial Sentencing Practices for Federal Immigration Offenses

In the last decade, immigration prosecutions in federal court have increased 165%, with immigration offenses comprising over 28% of the federal criminal caseload in 2008. Despite this increase, research has yet to fully examine the sentencing outcomes for these offenders. Exploration of sentencing outcomes for immigration offenders is particularly salient due to the racial/ethnic composition of these defendants and the documented history of disparate treatment of minorities at this decision point. To explicate these issues, we examine the sentence length of immigration cases to assess the impact of legal, extra-legal, and case-processing factors. We further disaggregate by offense type to explore if correlates of sentencing are consistent across specific categories of immigration violations. Finally, we examine southwestern border districts, which process over 70% of all cases, to assess their specific sentencing practices. Model results, theoretical implications, and avenues for future research are also discussed.     

The Effects of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorders on Institutional Misconduct Among Female Inmates

The US Sentencing Guidelines are among the most ambitious attempts in history to control sentencing discretion. However, a major sea change occurred in January of 2005, when the US Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Booker and Fanfan, that in order to be constitutional, the federal guidelines must be advisory rather than presumptive. The impact of the Booker/Fanfan decisions on interjurisdictional variation and sentencing disparity is an opportunity to examine the issue of whether the increased opportunity to sentence according to substantively rational criteria entails increased extralegal disparity. We draw on a conceptualization of courts as communities and a focal concerns model of sentencing decisions to frame expectations about federal sentencing in the wake of Booker/Fanfan. We test these expectations using USSC data on federal sentencing outcomes from four time periods: prior to the 2003 PROTECT Act, the period governed by the PROTECT Act, post-Booker/Fanfan, and post-Gall v US. In general, we find that extralegal disparity and between-district variation in the effects of extralegal factors on sentencing have not increased post-Booker and Gall. We conclude that allowing judges greater freedom to exercise substantive rationality does not necessarily result in increased extralegal disparity.